Japan’s ‘Social Party Robot Band’ has a killer guitarist, will melt your face off!

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See our report on this story in Japanese

There appears to be no end to the things that Japan can do with robots. While many robots are for practical purposes on assembly lines, there are also some really fun robots out there too. Take for example, Z-Machines, the first ‘social party robot band’, which is scheduled to make its debut on June 24th at the Liquid Room in Ebisu, Tokyo.

As you can see in their demo video above, the robot guitarist looks especially bad-ass, capable of playing at a speed of up to 1184 bpm. There’s there are no shortage of picks or nimble fingers in this mechanized setup, although I’m curious to see what the entire band looks like up close. The band’s profile shows a trio, including a keyboard robot and a drum robot too. I’m not sure if they will look much like the promotional graphics (see below), but I really hope so!

So what kind of music will the band play? That’s where the ‘social’ aspect comes into play. Leading up to its June 24th debut, Z-Machines will be accepting song submissions from aspiring musicians (in wav or midi formats) on PC or by using the Nana smartphone app [1]. The lucky winner will have their song played by Z-Machines during its debut.

The concept comes as part of a promotion for Zima, under the supervision of Tokyo University professor Yoichi Kawaguchi. Judging by his previous work, this looks like it will be quite a show!

z-machines-robot-band


  1. Readers may recall that we featured Nana – an app that lets musicians collaborate on projects together using their smartphones – just a few days ago.  ↩